Paradigms and productivity: the case of physiological optics, 1840-94

A massive bibliography of works on physiological optics allows an approximate reconstruction of literature production in this science between 1840 and 1894. It shows how relative levels of productivity varied in over seventy constituent problem areas and challenges us to explain the shifting foci of research activity in terms of what is known about the institutional and theoretical development of the field. This paper describes the growth of the science and offers such an interpretation, arguing that physiological optics passed from a `pre-paradigm' to a `paradigm' stage between 1850 and 1870. The elements of the paradigmatic formulation affected literature production in various problem areas differently, depending on the nature of the consensus they imposed, and the formulation did not prevent chronic disagreements on important theoretical questions from re-emerging.